“When I went out of the kitchen, wanting to go directly to you, I saw the masked man waiting for the elevator. When he saw me, he got me before I could run away and put a cloth over my nose and mouth. I woke up in that tunnel or whatever the hell it was shortly before seeing you. So, I don’t know who attacked me, but I have a hunch about who’s behind it,” Blake frowns, looking over to Lucas, who copied his expression in the meantime.
“Even if it’s the last thing I’ll do, he won’t see me coming,” Lucas says in a voice so harsh that it gives me chills.
I am scared and horny at the same time.
A lethal combination.
“No, you won’t do anything!” Blake says, trying to maintain his calm attitude. “He’ll only get angrier, and you won’t be the only one who will suffer," he says, moving his gaze to mine.
“Why do you always gang up on me when speaking about this man? He sounds like the devil on Earth who knows your every move,” I say, rolling my eyes.
I am too annoyed that they only see me as a little girl who isn’t capable of defending herself. I mean, it's half true, given the attraction between myself and the gym, but also the defence class I took a few years back.
I have already guessed that Lucas is in some kind of criminal organisation or something similar based on what he told me. I don’t know what more it could be or what more they could do other than torture people for information about drugs.
The two of them exchange gazes, keeping their lips in a straight line, and then they both look at me.
“Unfortunately, you can compare him to one,” Lucas says with a sad laugh. “He is the root of all the wickedness. The big Cathal…”
“Shut the fuck up, Lucas! She already knows too much!” Blake says.
“I know that already, but I am sick of keeping secrets from her!”
“That’s because you’re so vulnerable when it comes to Anmara. It’s pathetic and painfully obvious, especially if Cathal knows this too. He will take full advantage of it, and as I know him, he already started to do that,” Blake growls.
I move my gaze to Lucas’s, but he avoids it, putting his hands in his hair and pacing to the window.
And then I remember.
“Ok, I will avoid whatever I heard for now, but because we have a bigger problem. Do you think you can walk?” I ask Blake.
He then tries to get up, and I can see the pain he feels, but he manages to get on his feet. Even if his gaze tells me he’s not that ok, we don’t have much time. We need to go there. I need to find out if it’s true or not, even though I found the worst moment to think about that.
“Good, then change your clothes and prepare for a long ride,” I say, and go to my room to dress up better for the small adventure.
?
I bandaged Blake before leaving to make sure his shirt won’t get full of blood. I wanted us to attract as little attention as possible.
We went down to the basement after getting some flashlights and into the tunnel of terrors, which I now take my time to analyse.
All the walls are tainted with different colours that faded over time. I can see clearly that the most obvious one is the crimson, especially when we put some light on it. Same on the ground, as a lot of dark traces go off deep into the tunnel. I follow the trails and shiver when I see a pile of bones at the end of them. I try to keep the tears to myself, but I feel a delicate drop trickle down my cold cheek.
What if I hadn’t remembered this tunnel, or if I hadn’t found the key, and Blake had ended up the same way?
I feel a warm hand touching my back, making the panic inside me sweep out of my being.
“Do not think of what could’ve happened, Anmara,” Blake whispers to me. “Stay in the present and get us out of this darkness.”
I nod and move the lantern so that I will no longer see the clothes mixed with the rotten bones on the ground. My light falls upon an axe in a wall, which makes me move further to the last turn. I instantly calm down when we reach its end, directly in the park.
Surprise, surprise. It is sunny and nice, no rain, while around the hotel you can see the storm, so we are right.
Something suspicious is going on.
I think you would’ve been better off as a detective than as a writer. More action for you.
I ignore her, like I always do. I won’t let her control my thoughts and actions. Not fromthat night.
